Lightfoot Franklin & White is an Alabama-headquartered litigation boutique with offices in Birmingham and Houston, Texas. The firm often serves as regional counsel to Fortune 500 companies on a wide range of matters, including catastrophic injury and bet-the-company litigation. The firm’s standing has been cemented by unanimous peer and client review – in keeping with this, Lightfoot was the recipient of the "Alabama Firm of the Year" award for the sixth consecutive year at the Benchmark Litigation awards in 2022. An appreciative client confirms, “Lightfoot is handling a high-profile parallel state and federal investigation that we are involved in. They are attentive, responsive, and help think through complicated issues. Their work product is excellent.” A local peer asserts, “Lightfoot isn’t the biggest firm in Alabama but they certainly have the biggest reputation for litigation, on the defense side anyway.” It is also noted that “Lightfoot is diverse in its scope. There are other great litigation firms in Alabama but they tend to focus more on one industry, like insurance or healthcare. Lightfoot goes well beyond that.They have really developed relationships nationally, with major national clients. In fact, I think only a small percentage of their cases lately have been in Alabama!”
Exemplifying this testimonial, Jack Sharman has been by the Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney as special counsel to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office in an investigation into certain activities in the state by former President Donald Trump after the 2020 election. The investigation is currently focused on a call between then-President Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump pressured Raffensperger to investigate alleged fraud that would overturn Georgia’s presidential election results. Sharman also represents the Office of the Secretary of State in discussions with the Congressional committee investigating the January 6 riot at the US Capitol. “Jack is intelligent, responsive, level-headed, and creative,” extols a client. “He's an excellent counselor and good at dealing with opposing sides professionally.” Demonstrating the firm’s growing clout with national clients, Michael Bell and Chandler Bailey represent GM in a complex wrongful-death and catastrophic-injury case against claims of defective design arising from an accident that occurred involving five federal agents in a 2013 Chevrolet 15-passenger van. One federal agent died after being removed from the van and the others sustained various orthopedic injuries. Plaintiffs allege the van was defective because it did not come equipped with forward collision alert and/or automatic emergency braking and claim over $60 million in non-punitive damages. Trial was set for July 2022. Lee Hollis is defending GE Healthcare, the manufacturers of an anesthesia machine, in a suit brought by the family of a minor patient at the University of Florida Health Jacksonville who suffered from hypoxia and sustained a significant brain injury while under anesthesia. After the incident, it became clear that a preparatory test on the machine was not performed and the anesthesia resident conducting the procedure was unfamiliar with the equipment, resulting in the incident. The mistake by the resident was apparent to the attending physician and the hospital. The attending physician committed suicide in the wake of the incident, and the hospital reached a settlement with the family of the patient. The family of the patient has now sued GE Healthcare, seeking nearly $7 million in damages. In a novel prosecutorial role, Ashby Pate served as lead prosecutor for the State of Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission in a widely publicized judicial ethics trial of Judge Nakita Blocton. Charges filed by Pate in May of 2021 include complaints concerning multiple rules of judicial ethics, including delayed ruling on cases involving disfavored lawyers, working under the influence of medication in her chambers that cause erratic behavior, forcing staffers to take diet pills, and using fake social media accounts to harass people with cases before her. After a three-day trial, Alabama’s Court of the Judiciary handed down the harshest sanction available – removal from the bench and taxing of costs. Lightfoot has succeeded in its growth and recruiting strategy as well, with an impressive showing of new future stars in this edition. One of these, , “really the point person day-to-day on the GM litigation, managing it in eight states. She also has an interesting estate litigation practice.”
